Feb 14, 2015, 12:53 pm
Last edit by: 747FC
The ExpertFlyer support by email is at [email protected]
This is a community-maintained wiki, it is not necessarily endorsed by ExpertFlyer.
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Searches currently not working:
To search AA upgrades:
This is a community-maintained wiki, it is not necessarily endorsed by ExpertFlyer.
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Searches currently not working:
- Upgrades - AY, BA, EK, EY, IB, QR, VS
- Awards - AY, BA, IB, EY, QR, VS
To search AA upgrades:
- Use the Award & Upgrade tool
- Only search for individual segments (set the "Connection Preference" drop-down to "Direct/Non-Stop only"). Flight results that are part of a connection won't show the upgrade version of C or A inventory because AA only files upgrade inventory as individual, not married, segments. (Married segments show revenue inventory instead of upgrade inventory.)
- To avoid confusion, check the "Exclude Codeshares" box, as AA awards and upgrades are not valid on codeshares.
ExpertFlyer.com Help Desk Thread
Nov 15, 2012, 1:16 pm
#136
Join Date: May 2009
Location: TPA Bay area
Posts: 485
Hi. I'm using the trial version of EF and I'm having a problem with DL info.
I'm searching for award availability ATL-BOS during the months of December and January. On the DL site award calendar, almost the both months are entirely green with low award of 25K points seats. When I use sample dates of 12/17 with return 1/15, I have a wide choice of flights options.
However when I input this information to EF, and in the Fare Class "N", and hit Search, EF comes back telling me there is no availability. But there is, and plenty of it--I see it staring back at me from the DL site.
Am I doing something wrong? Is DL opaque with info? Or are there limitations with EF and/or DL?
I'm searching for award availability ATL-BOS during the months of December and January. On the DL site award calendar, almost the both months are entirely green with low award of 25K points seats. When I use sample dates of 12/17 with return 1/15, I have a wide choice of flights options.
However when I input this information to EF, and in the Fare Class "N", and hit Search, EF comes back telling me there is no availability. But there is, and plenty of it--I see it staring back at me from the DL site.
Am I doing something wrong? Is DL opaque with info? Or are there limitations with EF and/or DL?
Nov 15, 2012, 1:20 pm
#137
Join Date: Aug 2004
Programs: AA (EP), Hilton (Diamond), Marriott Bonvoy (Titanium)
Posts: 8,937
Inadvertently I had two alerts for C for the same flight on 17 Nov. I got first notice before 7 a.m. this morning and checked at aa.com to find out my upgrade and reticketing were already underway. I got second notice around 10 a.m. to the second alert, saying the same five C seats were available.
Nov 15, 2012, 1:28 pm
#138
Left Expert Flyer 4/23
Join Date: Jan 2005
Posts: 2,741
Hi. I'm using the trial version of EF and I'm having a problem with DL info.
I'm searching for award availability ATL-BOS during the months of December and January. On the DL site award calendar, almost the both months are entirely green with low award of 25K points seats. When I use sample dates of 12/17 with return 1/15, I have a wide choice of flights options.
However when I input this information to EF, and in the Fare Class "N", and hit Search, EF comes back telling me there is no availability. But there is, and plenty of it--I see it staring back at me from the DL site.
Am I doing something wrong? Is DL opaque with info? Or are there limitations with EF and/or DL?
I'm searching for award availability ATL-BOS during the months of December and January. On the DL site award calendar, almost the both months are entirely green with low award of 25K points seats. When I use sample dates of 12/17 with return 1/15, I have a wide choice of flights options.
However when I input this information to EF, and in the Fare Class "N", and hit Search, EF comes back telling me there is no availability. But there is, and plenty of it--I see it staring back at me from the DL site.
Am I doing something wrong? Is DL opaque with info? Or are there limitations with EF and/or DL?
Nov 15, 2012, 1:29 pm
#139
Left Expert Flyer 4/23
Join Date: Jan 2005
Posts: 2,741
Just curious: did you get the alerts via email or SMS? If email, can you do a 'view full headers' and see the timestamp of the lowest-down 'Received:' header field in each of the two alerts? I'm wondering if the three-hour delay was because each of your two alerts checked at different times, or if they checked together but there was a delay in getting the notice to you.
Nov 15, 2012, 6:09 pm
#141
Join Date: Aug 2004
Programs: AA (EP), Hilton (Diamond), Marriott Bonvoy (Titanium)
Posts: 8,937
Interesting implementation choice. Given that each query presumably costs you something, I'd have guessed that you'd have a table of flights to query (generated from the table of individual queries), so you'd only need to query each flight once no matter how many queries were set for it. (Just another example of how easy it is to be quite wrong when making guesses about things from the outside 
)
)
Nov 17, 2012, 8:13 am
#142
Join Date: Feb 2011
Posts: 14
Help! Expertflyer is inaccurate?
I just paid for a pro expert flyer subscription and is in the process of testing it out. I encountered the following problem. I'm trying to book a flight from EWR-PEK roundtrip and EF showed availability in K class for both outbound and return flights. When I go to ITA the cheapest tickets it could find for the exact same flight is in W class, which is 150% more expensive. How could EF show K9 (meaning more than 9 seats available in K class) and ITA not find any of them? I have attached the screenshots, check out UA 88 on 2/2.
https://s3.amazonaws.com/public-img-88/ExpertFlyer.png
https://s3.amazonaws.com/public-img-88/ITA-Matrix.png
https://s3.amazonaws.com/public-img-88/ExpertFlyer.png
https://s3.amazonaws.com/public-img-88/ITA-Matrix.png
Last edited by Prospero; Nov 17, 2012 at 10:48 am Reason: Convert oversized image from [IMG] to [URL]
Nov 17, 2012, 10:37 am
#143
Senior Moderator
Join Date: Oct 2001
Location: San Francisco, CA
Programs: UA Plat/2MM [23-yr. 1K, now emeritus] clawing way back to WN-A List; MR LT Titanium; HY Whateverist.
Posts: 12,396
[Deleted as moot after thread moved to this forum. O V 1K.]
Last edited by Ocn Vw 1K; Nov 17, 2012 at 10:52 am Reason: Moot after thread merger.
Nov 17, 2012, 10:46 am
#144
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: HOU
Programs: AA EXP, UA 1K
Posts: 285
Is there a valid fare in K class for 2/2/13?
A quick look at the UA fares for EWR-PEK (in Expertflyer) seems to indicate that all K fares require midweek travel.
So there is availability in K class, but no fare that is valid.
A quick look at the UA fares for EWR-PEK (in Expertflyer) seems to indicate that all K fares require midweek travel.
Code:
DAY/TIME: PERMITTED MON THROUGH THU ON EACH TRANSPACIFIC SECTOR.
Nov 25, 2012, 12:13 pm
#145
Join Date: Nov 2012
Location: SFO
Posts: 1,746
When searching for availability in a particular award class (T on AA, for example) some flights don't even appear, whereas others appear with an inventory of 0. Adding more classes, I get stuff like this for one flight:
F7 Z1 Y7 T0
And this for others:
F7 Z2 Y7
What's the difference between T0 and T not appear at all?
F7 Z1 Y7 T0
And this for others:
F7 Z2 Y7
What's the difference between T0 and T not appear at all?
Nov 25, 2012, 6:14 pm
#146
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: LI, NY
Programs: AA PLT, AAdv since Day One
Posts: 2,682
When searching for availability in a particular award class (T on AA, for example) some flights don't even appear, whereas others appear with an inventory of 0. Adding more classes, I get stuff like this for one flight:
F7 Z1 Y7 T0
And this for others:
F7 Z2 Y7
What's the difference between T0 and T not appear at all?
F7 Z1 Y7 T0
And this for others:
F7 Z2 Y7
What's the difference between T0 and T not appear at all?
For instance, take a route with many flights on a given day, say DFW-LGA on AA. Maybe the first two flights have T availability and that inventory will be shown. If all remaining flights for that day have no T inventory then the GDS will show the next two flights as T0 and show nothing for T for the remaining flights that day.
Nov 25, 2012, 10:26 pm
#147
Join Date: Nov 2012
Location: SFO
Posts: 1,746
If all remaining flights for that day have no T inventory then the GDS will show the next two flights as T0 and show nothing for T for the remaining flights that day.
Nov 25, 2012, 11:42 pm
#148
Left Expert Flyer 4/23
Join Date: Jan 2005
Posts: 2,741
When searching for availability in a particular award class (T on AA, for example) some flights don't even appear, whereas others appear with an inventory of 0. Adding more classes, I get stuff like this for one flight:
F7 Z1 Y7 T0
And this for others:
F7 Z2 Y7
What's the difference between T0 and T not appear at all?
F7 Z1 Y7 T0
And this for others:
F7 Z2 Y7
What's the difference between T0 and T not appear at all?
•Sometimes American will return just two flights where the requested award seat availability is zero on both flights, even when there are later non-stop/direct flights scheduled. This is American's way of indicating that none of the later flights have available inventory for the request class either.
So the later flights are T0 and you can see that for yourself by advancing the time of day of the search. You can easily create alerts for later flights by either a) creating the alert via the Flight Availability results, b) adding an "Other" fare class to the Award search, such as Y, that will always be returned for a flight, thereby making the later flights show in the results, or c) using the Create New Flight Alert page if you know the flight number.
Why do they do it that way? The host systems are designed to return results that are useful and you can't sell tickets with no inventory available, so if there are too many 0 inventory flights in a row they are skipped.
Nov 29, 2012, 12:12 pm
#150
Join Date: Nov 2012
Location: SFO
Posts: 1,746
I believe "R" is the class code for coach-business class upgrades on a domestic 3-class flights. That code doesn't appear at all for tonight's flights--for example, AA 18 SFO-JFK, 11/29/12 10:30 PM.
Does that mean that there's no availability for coach to business upgrades, or am I misunderstanding something?
Thanks!
Does that mean that there's no availability for coach to business upgrades, or am I misunderstanding something?
Thanks!